The River Afton (or Afton Water) is a small river in Ayrshire, Scotland, which flows north from Alwhat Hill in the Carsphairn and Scaur Hills, through Afton Reservoir and then for eight miles down Glen Afton before joining the River Nith at New Cumnock.

New Cumnock in the Afton area was the scene of the Knockshinnoch Disaster in 1950.

The river is celebrated in Robert Burns's poem Sweet Afton^[1] and this led to a number of townships in the United States being called Afton.

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  Looking south towards the River Nith at the point where it is joined by Afton Water just north of New Cumnock. The water entering from the bottom left of the picture is the River Nith and the water entering from the right is Afton Water. The hill in the background is Corsencon Hill (475 metres). Cumnock Castle stood on this site in the Middle Ages.
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  The Burns Cairn in Glen Afton. The inscription on the cairn says "Flow Gently Sweet Afton. Robert Burns 1759 - 1796. Erected by New Cumnock Burns Club (500) to mark its golden jubilee 1973."
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  Memorials to the miners who died in the Knockshinnoch mining disaster New Cumnock in 1950. The stone in the foreground tells of the sponsors of the memorials. The nearer conical memorial indicates where the events took place. The text on the third memorial says "To remember Knockshinnoch 1950. The peat valley ahead broke through into the pit killing 13 miners & trapping 116. Wearing oxygen masks the trapped miners were rescued on the 3rd day."